UFCthrough?

By: Sherdog.com StaffDec 23, 2012

Everyone answers to somebody, so we, the staff at Sherdog.com, have
decided to defer to our readers.

“The Doggy Bag” gives you the opportunity to speak about what is on
your mind from time to time. Our reporters, columnists, radio hosts
and editors will chime in with their answers and thoughts, so keep
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This holiday season, MMA fans certainly have their wish lists.
Whether or not you think your average MMA nut is an entitled brat
or a crusader for justice, there’s always a lengthy ledger of wants
from the fight faithful. Our potential for wish fulfillment is not
particularly high, but we are more than happy to discuss whatever
has got you kvetching this Christmas.

After all the drama involved in firming up Georges St.
Pierre-Nick Diaz for
UFC 158, fans are wishing for a little transparency from Dana White
in the UFC -- emphasis on the wishing. Meanwhile, another UFC title
fight between Junior dos
Santos and Cain
Velasquez has many wondering if the winner could fulfill
another MMA wish: to have another heavyweight who could dominate
like Fedor
Emelianenko.

Then there are some wishes that never go out of style. From more
10-8 rounds to axing Bellator’s tournament format to replacing Mike
Goldberg, we have counsel for your craving.I wish Dana White and the UFC could be a little more honest
about the promotion’s product. I think if this was the usual case,
people wouldn’t complain so often when guys like Chael Sonnen
fight for a title again or when a fighter like Johny
Hendricks sits on the sidelines. If White was frank and said,
“This is a business, we want to make the biggest fights and Diaz is
a good PPV draw,” people might not agree, but they wouldn’t be up
in arms. The UFC only hurts itself with this kind of doublespeak.
To act like St. Pierre hand chose his opponent for UFC 158 is an
insult to the intelligence of fans. -- Brad from South
Dakota

Chris Nelson,
associate editor: Ah, it’s a nice time of year for wishes,
those things we dream of but know in our hearts could never be.

You raise a good point about transparency, something in which the
UFC has shown to be only selectively interested. Fight promoters
have often been compared with carnival barkers, and with good
reason: you pay your money, you see what they want to show you and
then you leave, satisfied or not. We outsiders only get to peek
behind the curtain when it behooves Dana White & Co. to let us
-- in August, for example, when they let the world know how they
felt about their light heavyweight champion after Jon Jones
turned down a short-notice fight against Sonnen. Even in these rare
moments of apparent transparency, the facts can be manipulated and
distorted by way of Zuffa’s custom funhouse mirrors.

At the same time, I couldn’t expect White to admit Sonnen doesn’t
really deserve his upcoming title shot any more than I would have
expected P.T. Barnum to inform eager ticket-buyers that his Fiji
mermaid was actually just a fish body with a monkey’s head sewn on
it. Probably some people knew back then what Barnum was up to, but
far more were unaware, willing to pony up their money to see for
themselves. In the same way, the UFC can afford to ignore the likes
of you and I and instead spend the next season of “The Ultimate
Fighter” selling the idea of Sonnen as a legitimate 205-pound
contender to casual fans. I don’t disagree when you say this is
insulting to fans’ intelligence; at the same time, it’s tough to
argue that it’s hurting business when the UFC could very well do
record pay-per-view numbers with a GSP-Diaz or Jones-Sonnen
matchup.

Maybe it’s not as hopeless as I think. Maybe there will come a day
when the UFC is more honest about the matchups it makes and why
it's making them. Maybe eventually it’ll even have some kind of
transparent internal ranking system, you know, like a real sport --
highly unlikely, but again, wishes are nice.

For now, a fighter like Hendricks is forced to try and state his
case for a title shot on Twitter, while White justifies
championship fights for guys coming off losses or suspensions. For
now, just pay your money and step right up.